Dan Rather

Ok so I have to find the connection between this dude and blogs.

I think I’ve got it; Dan Rather was a CBS anchorman from 1981 to 2005.

He did a rather controversial piece on George Bush’s military service in 2004. Rather claimed Bush had failed to fly in the Texas Air National Guard as he refused to obey orders. This was apparently documented in files held by Col. Jerry B Killan.

Bloggers found Rather biased and unfair, in an online forum 'freerepublic.com' bloggers discussed the authenticity of the documents found. This evolved into a full investigation into the documents, which were indeed found to be false by the bloggers.

This lost Rather his job and credibility. Silly boy.

Occupation bloggers

' In a room full of psychotherapists, a big cigar is never just a big cigar"

This blog is about a female psychotherapist named Ms. Melancholy, she is British and the blog contains her opinion on her job and the world around her.

I think this is a very successful site, unlike others that claim to be occupational, like the Librarian blogs, she takes you as far into her a job as possible. The level of writing is good and she has a lovely flow to her work.

Ms. Melancholy uses the blog to vent her frustrations in a witty and humorous manner.

The interesting part to this site is that she sees her colleagues as her enemy, she can relate to the average Jane and keeps a good overview of her job to help the reader feel more comfortable.

There was a little jargon, which can be intimidating, but she tied current events into her occupation sphere well, such as Ulrika Johnson's sex addiction programme on channel 4.

All in all I found her funny and very interesting.

At least I now know even the shrinks need a rant sometimes.

Commenting on a blog

Your assignment.... if you choose it. Commenting on a blog.

I chose to write a comment on a post on the subject of an artist named Ryan Holsopple.

He has started a 'who dunnit', Cluedo style call in for the public from a phone booth in NYC.

Not quite art, not quite theatre. I thought this was an interesting move forward for installation art and street performance.

Get your wobbly bits out

Show off your muffin tops with pride, well they are in Iceland.

The first ever 'real beauty' pageant is being held in April. The rules are you have to be over 20 years old and have had no cosmetic surgery (bad luck Cher). Their looking for inner beauty

So that’s my synopsis, now for the really interesting bit...


I sourced it at The Sun website (who else). In true red top fashion they took the subject in a jovial manner, making fun and coining it a pageant for ugly people. They completely missed the message of inner beauty and twinned it with a picture of ' the bride of Weinstein'. They gave it little space on the website and used it as trivia, rather than news.

The news BBC website had more grace when approaching the subject, but yet again gave little space to the subject. While they saw the point of the pageant they gave little concern. They did not even give a link to the website. This again came across as trivia and worked as a nib rather than a news story.

Across the pond, well Iceland, had a more interested view than western websites. Obviously a localised story will instantly make it more readable, but they gave it more space, and had more sources. They talked to the promoters and took it very seriously. This story uses the beauty within as a hook, unlike western press who poke fun at the idea.

Surprisingly American press had a very positive attitude to this piece. They gave space on the page and again used many sources to create a more informed news piece. This surprised me as I assumed the land of the size 0 would have looked down its nose at a 'beauty within' pageant.
Yahoo gave integrity to the story and treated it with respect.

An interesting perspective was from a European website. They treated the subject as a social experiment, to test and 'challenge' western ideas of beauty. They treated it as radical act, trying to reverse stereotype and ideology. This was the most refreshing news piece I read. It didn't recycle the same angle, it produced a new perspective.

So that’s what I found, I was really surprised by the emotive style of American press and the suppression of the story in British press. I was surprised no British press included the Dove campaign for inner beauty; I thought this would have tied the story nicely into current affairs. With the campaigns for abolishment of size 0 in the press, I thought it would have made this story much bigger than it was.

Update......

Silver surfer week, 22nd to 26th of May.
"This has been one of the most exciting things I've done in years."

Get your granny out! and take her to one of the designated centres across the country where sponsors such as AOL and Microsoft help get your granny up and running as a fully fledged surfer.

In sponsorship with Age Concern libraries around the country are staring free training courses.

Update......

the 'Grey market' is set to explode by 2010, says some 'Futureologists' (like thats a real job!) Micheal Wilmot.
2/3 of adults using the internet are nearly in retierment. He predicts that by 2010, 80% of oldies will be shopping online.

OAP's will rule the internet.... ahhhh

Ok, so i have to find out about old people on the internet, so i have to define what an old person on the internet is.

I found out they are coined 'Silver surfers'. They are generally over the age of 50 years and have a large disposable income.

Since there is only so many stanna stair lifts and knitting catalogues you can buy, they are clouding the online shopping market.

This boom in the online market is called the 'grey market'. Cool huh?

Critical evaluation.

LDNY: a site designed for business professionals commuting to and from London and New York, looking for cultural activities.

I feel the concept, in a niche market, was a good idea. I feel the target market could have been widened to incorporate, not just business people, but holiday makers as well.


After much deliberation I feel changing the name from NYLON to LDNY was a good choice as it made LDNY stand out as a blog. The name is still clever and also gives a clue to the content of the site.


Posting once a day was an attainable goal, I feel by timing the posts at intervals within the day would have made it more attractive to the user.
By regulating the posts to coincide with incoming flights would have made the site more attractive.

There was no definition between posts for New York or London, this very confusing and off putting. If I had more time I would have put flags next to the posts to make this clearer.
Using pictures for every post was an attractive element; this made the site more attractive and less wordy.
I feel the linking within all of the posts was necessary and done well, there was purpose to the links and the links were also relevant.

As team leader I feel was competent, hard at times, but the results can be seen on the site. By making decisions as a team, I feel we became very productive and started to have similar writing style. This made the site more cohesive and successful.
By being very detailed in our production plans I found it less stressful and easier to perform my tasks as restaurant specialist.

The design was disappointing, obviously there are limitations to using blogger and page design was a big fault. The design was basic and rather boring.
While too much detail is distracting, I feel the site looked barren and sterile. If I had more time I would have used a design package to create a more aesthetically pleasing design.

My personal posts, were not my best work, I felt constrained to fill the brief instead of reflecting my true writing style.
On the whole I feel I improved my flow problems and kept to a strict formula of writing that delivered the correct information clearly and concisely.